Extended Maintenance, Diablo 3 Patch 2.0.3 Notes and Hotfixes

Last week’s server maintenance went long, and this week is following that trend with delays, but soon we’ll have Diablo 3 Patch 2.0.3 notes and Hotfixes.

Updated: 2:20PM PDT

There is currently an intermittent issue where some users are unable to log into Battle.net. We are currently investigating, and as we will provide updates as we receive additional information.

————————————————–

Updated: 12:23 PM PDT

I’m happy to announce that maintenance has ended and you can now log into the game.

Happy adventuring, heroes!

————————————————–

We are currently deploying patch 2.0.3. However, we encountered some issues which have delayed its release. To ensure these issues are resolved swiftly and thoroughly, today’s maintenance has been extended. At this time, we anticipate maintenance will conclude and the game will be available at approximately 1:00 P.M. PDT. We’ll be keeping you updated if that schedule should change.

Thanks again as always for your patience, and we look forward to seeing you in Sanctuary!

The maintenance downtimes are more vexing now that so many fans are eager to get on and play the new and improved version 2 stuff. In the meantime, the Patch 2.0.3 notes are available. It’s mostly bug fix stuff and some tweaks to crafting costs. No more getting rich/flooding the AH with Fiery Brimstones via crafting and salvaging some of the lower level recipes! Also, there’s a new +max spirit mod for Monks, and the guaranteed Legendary drop has been moved from Leoric to Diablo, assuming you can get your Reset Quests issues straightened out.

Diablo III – Patch 2.0.3 v.2.0.3.22427

Below you will find the patch notes for the most recent update for Diablo III, patch 2.0.3.

GENERAL

The area of effect for the Fire Trenches in the Halls of Agony now better match their animations

There is now a short delay before Fire Trench damage is dealt

Click though for the rest of the patch notes, plus the recent hotfixes which include additional critical bug fixes.

Should now properly allow Wizards to pass over walls created by monsters with the Waller affix.*

The Blackfeather cloak was unusable since the proc, firing a projectile at enemies who damaged the Demon Hunter, would rebound back and forth against monsters with reflecting effects, putting the DH into a death spiral that could only be broken by 1) death, or 2) Smoke Screen.

As for no more crit damage from the Act 2 KW’s reflecting missiles… I’m hopeful but you’ll understand if I wait for feedback on the fix from softcore Demon Hunters and their parties before I take my HC back into the [[Dhalgur Oasis]].

Furthermore, the discovery of that ‘bug’ which likely originates from vanilla beta (since there are still affixes as WeaponThrust and WeaponSlice, as the clear indicator that the original intention was to actually have diverse weaponry) shows… well, what was said above

What are you guys talking about? Of course it was a bug. Or do you think the dev team wants two-handers to be straight up worse?

Believe it or not, without this bug dual-wielding is not always the best choice, at least not when your class has passive resource regeneration (Wizard, WD, DH). If you use a slow two-handed weapon with these classes you’ll regenerate more resource between attacks and if you buff resource spenders with items you can make up for the attack speed (and therefore the DPS) deficit.

It’s true however that for Barbs and Monks dual-wielding is often the best choice, but again, not always. Some Legendary items have good enough unique properties that they are absolutely worth using. A good example would be the Fury of the Vanished Peak for the Barb.

I cannot stress this point enough: in 2.0 sheet DPS is almost meaningless (Toughness as well to some extent). The new patch and the expansion is moving away from methods like balancing weapons by a simple and boring DPS difference.

I’ve seen people easily clear T6 with 100k DPS and 1m Toughness and yet even though my DH has similar stats T6 would wipe the floor with me. Why? Because those other players are using better items, but ones that boost specific skills or stats that don’t increase their global DPS.

Same here…: While trying to log in, the game says that there’s a new patch available, which will be loaded automatically after the game closes itself. But there’s no patch loading (… well, … Hearthstone, … , but…). Is it the same “intermittent issue where some users are unable to log into Battle.net” as on US? Or is said issue strictly concerning the Battle.net loader?

The God was clear: a bug probably exists more than two years, and as such, should have been spotted and fixed earlier, especially if they ‘acknowledged the problem’ months ago.

Certain unique 2-handers were better than anything else, but what that means? Only that there were OP items, some of which happened to be 2-handers.

A solution to an inherent flaw exists, and it’s called ‘balancing’. The real-life example divine being gave shows that it takes a few minutes of work, and does not include coding, art, sound – nothing but changing existing numbers on existing affixes and basic damage.

Wizard and WD don’t dual-wield, but don’t have dedicated 2-handers (non-unique) better than good offhand. Resource regeneration offered by 1-hander and offhand is always better than time-based gain. This, of course, could and should be fixed as well, but currently is not the case.